Had a real gale of wind arisen, I fear that the show would have been reduced to matchwood, and perhaps the horses killed. But then a gale of wind did not arise, and, besides, Fitzroy was well insured, and therefore easy in his mind.
They were four days and four nights getting up and into the rolling Firth of Clyde, for they had to go all the way round and south of the Scillies.
Jolly evenings they did spend to be sure. All for love a concert was given every night, and wee Willie, the dwarf, with his friend, Gourmand, the giant, performed feats that quite astonished the honest sailors.
It is needless to say that Peggy became a very great favourite before she had been four-and-twenty hours on board, and so did Ralph the hound.
Johnnie sang “Maggie by my Side” with such charming effect that the tears rolled down the cheeks of Charlie Chat, the skipper’s cabin boy.
Here let my home be,
Upon the waters wide,
I roam with a proud heart,
Peggy’s by my side.
(Chorus) My own love Peggy dear, etc.
And Charlie that same evening told Chipps, the carpenter, that if he, Charlie Chat, had Peggy by his side, he would “sail the seas o’er, and never think of returning to the dull shore, not nevermore.” Which was poetic if not quite grammatical.
But everything has an end—a German polony has two by the way—and the saucy Sea-Witch arrived alongside the Broomielaw at last, and when the caravans were landed, when the horses were put to, and they rolled away, Peggy waving her white handkerchief from her little stern window back towards the ship, Charlie turned tearfully round to Chipps and said—
“She is faded and gone, Chipps. My love has obliterated, my life’s dream is a thing of the grizzly past.”
“Don’t be a bally hass,” said Chipps.